To the surprise of virtually everybody at City Hall this week, city council settled an old power struggle with Windsor firefighters in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

In reality it took weeks of chess-like plotting, hundreds of computer simulations, and extensive weekend negotiations. It produced what can only be described as a brilliant save of Windsor’s six-year tax freeze.

In a nutshell, Mayor Eddie Francis, fire Chief Bruce Montone and his two deputies figured out a way to neutralize a union demand that Windsor Fire and Rescue hire 31 more people.

Instead, they’re redeploying everybody in the department to put more people on the trucks and building two new stations closer to the city’s edges to improve response times and raise the standard of public safety in Windsor.

Not even the all-powerful Windsor Professional Firefighters Association can argue against higher standards. They’ve been beaten at their own ancient game: milking public safety fears.

In the end, the union’s attempt to intimidate councillors into supporting them with a weekend telephone blitz failed spectacularly. Council unanimously supported the redeployment by a vote of 10 to none because they couldn’t find a hole in the plan.

The association was so shocked at being skunked – behind closed doors not a single councillor defended what the union wanted – that they withdrew in a sulk from final negotiations over what became a radical restructuring of the department.

In an historic side decision that will completely change the balance of power between City Hall and the fire department, council also nuked a decades-old promotion system for district chiefs, which the union loved because it wasn’t based on merit.

Under the old system, older firefighters simply waited their turn to become district chief, based on seniority. The automatic promotions entitled them not only to higher pay, but a shot at the top jobs and bigger pensions. Work performance had nothing to do with who got the gravy.

Under the new system of appointing deputy chiefs, a panel of city administrators will choose who gets promoted based on drive, integrity and managerial competence.

Under the new rules, council will get the last word on who becomes a deputy chief. Finally, after all these decades, City Hall will have effective control of the department instead of the union.

“That is huge,” Ward 3 Coun. Fulvio Valentinis said of the promotions change. “But it had to be done.”

The union will grieve that, claiming their system is better. But it is important to note there is a retired Windsor district fire chief on council – Ward 2 Coun. Ron Jones – and he voted in favour of the new system, too.

Some councillors were shocked at how smoothly the mayor’s plan fell together. They were expecting more fireworks and a longer struggle.

“I’m surprised it came out this good,” Valentinis admitted, shaking his head. “But it was all about response time. Giving us a significant increase in response time came as a major surprise to most councillors.”

The redeployment improves public safety, and under the legal rules that govern municipal firefighting, safety trumps everything.

So what happened behind closed doors? The union simply got run over by the Francis Express. The guy stays up way later than everybody else plotting everybody’s moves.

Francis the lawyer figured out where the city had legal leverage, where the union’s case was weak, and how the city could exploit the situation to its advantage. It’s what talented lawyers do.

Francis used the union’s own Big Sticks – safety standards and the public fears the union exploits every chance it gets – as the lever to flip their argument on its head.

The gold standard of fire response gets 10 fire fighters to a scene in 10 minutes. Windsor Fire can only do that for 94,944 of its residents. The other half get only platinum service.

That’s not bad coverage compared to most other cities, but it’s not optimal.

The situation hasn’t improved in decades because Windsor couldn’t afford to build new stations in better locations.

Now, with shrinking debt, Windsor can move stations closer to the newer neighbourhoods. And by reassigning drivers to the front line, the city can bring the gold standard to 50,000 more of its residents.

By Jan. 1, 2015, only 44,000 or so residents in Windsor won’t have the best fire protection their money can buy. Who can argue against that?

And instead of spending $4 million more per year to hire 31 more firefighters who would have cost taxpayers more than $120 million over their 30-year careers, council delivers better service at a one-time capital cost of only $10 or $12 million for the new buildings.

Not only is that good government, it’s brilliant management. Hats off to the chiefs, who ran the computer simulations over and over until they found out where to put the new stations, and to administration and every member of council.

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